Les Petite Gardiens
by Joeshmo24
Summary: While Yugo and The brotherhood search out an Island for the eliatrope race to inhabit Chibi, Grougal, Flopin and Elely sort out their various issues back home in the small town of emelka.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I don't remember which of my 'Spirit of the King' readers asked me for this, but I remember being asked if I could do it. This fic will follow chronologically along with Spirit of The King but take place back in Emelka with Chibi, Grougal, Elely and Flopin. These chapters will probably be pretty short to start off with, I want to make an arc where this one and Spirit of the king tie in with one another down the road though, so maybe longer chapters then…**

 **Chapter 1: Gobball Stew**

The grill sizzled as the steak was dropped upon it, seasonings followed shortly after and followed by vigorous stirring of the pot next to it. A ladel was dropped into said pot and brought to the cook's lips as he surveyed his work, judging carefully it's quality.

"Perfect." Alibert said satisfied, "sure to make another satisfied customer!"

The steak was flipped the once red meant having turned brown and sat allowing the other side, still red, to cook. A pair of curious eyes watched with great interest as the master chef, cooked and stirred and seasoned the food. She was not hungry nor did she wish to steal the delicious morsels, she only wanted to learn what the man did to make his stew so tasty.

"What did you just put in there?" the little girl asked curious.

"Ah-ah-ah," the chef replied "If I went around telling everyone the secret to my famous gobball stew, It wouldn't be so famous anymore."

"I just want to cook some for papa," the girl replied with a huff "He's always hungry when he gets home from an adventure."

"I can cook him a meal if that's what you want." Alibert said with a smirk.

"But that's not what I want!" the girl said angrily " _I_ want to cook the meal, It's pointless if someone else does it!"

"Ah," Alibert said with understanding "You wish to perform a good deed then, hmm… I may be able to help you."

"Really!" the girl said her eyes shining like diamonds.

"Yes," Alibert said "But Elely, I am not going to teach you to make my gobbal stew."

"Aww," Elely uttered dejectedly "But no one's gobball stew tops yours."

Alibert smiled with pride "You're right, no one's does, yet. But I can teach you how t make a basic Gobbal stew recipe," he said "and give you some pointers on when to use what kind of spices, then you can make your own gobball stew, a unique stew just for your papa!"

This seemed to satify the little girl, who smiled happily "When do we start?" Elely said excitedly.

"After the restaurant closes," Alibert said "I need to make sure my customers eat."

"Awwww," Elely uttered again

"Why don't you go play with Chibi and Grougal for now," Alibert said "And see if you can find your brother, he said he'd help me with a couple errands today."

"Okay," Elely said as she pushed herself off the stool upon which she sat and landed lightly on the floor, her bare feet pitter pattering on the wood as she rushed out of the kitchen to find her brother.

"Percedal is truly lucky," Alibert said "His children are very well behaved for their age, Yugo was never so compliant when he was six."

It had taken almost the entire first day but Flopin thought it was worth every hour, he had managed to build a target range for his use just outside the Emelka proper area, barely within the borders of the forest. After a quick test run he could head back and see about those Errands Alibert wanted him to run.

He pulled out his bow and pulled a lever to get the moving targets going as his mother had shown him. He rushed out and knocked the first arrow firing arrows of power into each of the targets in turn while jumping rolling and flipping around, when he was done he surveyed his work, forcing the arrows to stay rather than disperse, he clicked his tongue in annoyance as he had missed the center on two of the targets.

"Not good enough." He said with a sigh, waving his hand he dispelled the arrows and folded his bow for storage, pulling the lever again he caused the moving targets to stop and pushed his bow into the small of his back, he began to march back towards Alibert's Inn.

A pair of eyes had watched silently and despite the difficulty of doing so, the cra had in fact impressed him. Dragon wings flapped as the person who owned the eyes flew forward towards him.

"You're hard on yourself." The dragon said

Flopin whirled quickly, drawing his bow and pulling back an arrow, an unfortunate side effect of the battle he once fought in the skies, Suprising the young blonde was often a bad idea.

"Calm down!" Grougaloragran uttered somewhat angrily "I was trying to help!"

"You, help?" Flopin said with a chuckle "That'll be the day." Replacing his bow in the small of his back he turned again and continued his walk.

"I really mean it!" grougal said "Chibi is… Well…"

"Chibi is what Grougal?" Flopin said, curious. The blonde was sure that if the dragon could blush he would be doing just that.

"Chibi has been odd lately," Grougal said "He doesn't seem to like playing with me or even having me around, though he tolerates me."

"I wouldn't want you around if you attacked all my friends on sight either," Flopin said bluntly "Maybe you should do something about that."

"But what would I do?" Grougal asked "Guarding him has been my entire life."

Flopin frowned he'd never seen this side of grougal before and he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with it either. When grougal was being a defensive angry jerk he was easy enough to deal with, a few arrows and a harsh word from chibi and he would back down, but now… now he wanted to change? Flopin wasn't sure what to think, it would mean he'd have to think before striking in the future, something he wasn't always good at anymore.

"I don't know." Flopin said "I don't have a brother, ask Alibert."

"But you have a sister." Grougal said "You protect her, but she doesn't get mad at you for it."

"Girls aren't boys," Flopin said "They don't mind being protected sometimes." Flopin said.

This answer was too easy for Grougal, he didn't like it, and he didn't want to ask Alibert either, the older man was always busy in the kitchen and always wanted him scarce, it made him jealous, that chibi found it so easy to bond with their adoptive father and he was always so…. so… far away? He wasn't sure how to describe it.

"I've gotta run an errand for Alibert," Flopin said "I'll see you later.

As the dragon landed on his hind legs, a manueuver he recently learned from his brother Adamai, he huffed in frustration, Flopin was right, he was always attacking everyone, the only one he never attacked on sight was Elely, because she was always so nice to him.

"Grougal!" a voice said snapping him out of his reverie, he turned an orange haired girls was approaching him… speak of the devil.

"Hey where's Chibi, I wanna play hide and seek!" Groougal frowned and looked away.

"What's wrong Grougal?" she asked, when he didn not answer she was silent a moment before speaking up again "You're emotions are all twisted up in knots, I can't tell what's the matter."

"Stop looking at that!" Grougal said angrily, little girl and her emotion power, he felt violated when people saw into his mind, even just a little bit, it was his sanctuary.

"Sorry," Elely said "I just wanna help."

"Then find out what's wrong with Chibi" Grougal said anger again evedent in his voice. What was he doing? She was always so nice to him, why was he being so mean back, he hadn't treated her like this in a very long time.

"Oh, no!" Elely said "Is he okay? Is he sick?" she was holding him by his shoulders and staring into his eyes with big green saucers full of worry and concern.

"No, nothing like that." Grougal said sighing "He's just… he doesn't want me around, it's weird and uncomfortable."

"Oh," Elely said simply "My mama calls that growing pains, maybe he just wants to be left alone for awhile.

"no," Grougal said "he doesn't have a problem playing with everyone else."

"Okay," Elely said "I'll go see what's wrong, you stay out of trouble okay!"

"You're not my mom!"

"No," elely said "But I think she's coming to visit tomorrow."

"What!?" Grougal replied, but before he could take the question any further Elely had already run off behind the hill to find Chibi.

Careful hands turned another crisp page setting it right before it's little fingers moved beneath the words, barely audible whispers emanated from small lips and their owner quietly read to himself. The other hand reached up and scratched the white hair that was mostly hidden underneath a black hat with odd rabbit ear like protrusions at the top.

Chibi sighed, he was trying very hard to understand things, but sometimes he would run into one of these bigger words that he just didn't get, or a figure of speech he had never heard used before. Fortunately Ms. Hildi was usually around to help, he picked himself up from the bench he was sitting on and sought her out at the front desk. She sat with her back to him scrawling something on paper.

"Ms, Hildi" his small voice asked.

The large eniripsa turned to face the small eliatrope boy. "Ah Chibi," she said "Another tough word?"

"Yes," Chibi said "What does I-n-q-u-i-r-e mean?

"Inquire?" Ms. Hildi asked

"Yes." Chibi said with a small smile, at least he knew how to pronounce it now.

"I means to earnestly ask," Hildi replied "Or to ask with intent of discovering more that the question says."

Chibi scrunched his face up in confusion "Like how?"

"Well…" Ms. Hildi began "Like if you wanted to discover what someone is thinking, but instead of asking that you ask 'what's wrong' instead."

"So.. indirectly?" Chibi asked using another word he had recently learned

"Yes!" Ms. Hildi said placing her hand on the little boy's head and scruffing up his hair through his hat.

"Okay!" chibi said "Thank you Ms. Hildi!" he said happily and pitter pattered back to his bench to continue reading.

Hildi returned to her notes and for a brief moment before hearing the door open and the little bell she had on it ring. She looked up and saw a young Iop girl walk in look around briefly

"Is Chibi here?" she asked.

Ms. Hildi Raised an eyebrow but pointed down the aisle to the bench on which the little eliatrope boy say quietly reading a book.

"Thank you!" The little Iop girl said running down the aisle towards him.

Hildi shook her head, Chibi was certainly good at making friends, she could never keep track of them all.

Chibi turned as he heard the clomping sound of shoes on wood approaching quickly, before him stood Elely who sat on the bench next to him.

"What'cha Readin'?" she asked him.

"A book about bounty hunters," Chibi said "papa says he used to be one, so I wanted to see what it was like, it seems pretty exciting."

"Hmm… My daddy always said that bounty hunters weren't very honorable." She said bluntly "and if Alibert stopped to run an Inn instead they probably aren't."

"Papa says something similar," Chibi said "He says he couldn't separate familys over stupid things like apples and bread anymore."

"Then they must be pretty bad." Elely said

"Papa says he worked with Ruel before," Chibi said "but Ruel gave up bounty hunting not all that long afterwards, according to Papa Ruel never does one thing for very long anyway."

"I talked to Grougal a few minutes ago." Elely said randomly changing the subject.

"Oh?" Chibi replied his voice growing a little thicker and his head turning away. "what did he say?"

"he said something was wrong between you and him," Elely said "And you got angry and irritated when I said his name just now, so I guess it's true."

"Hmm." Chibi grunted back at her, he didn't like having his emotion pried into, but he knew Elely couldn't always help it, she was still learning control over that particular aspect of her power.

"What happened?" Elely asked

"Same thing that always does." Chibi said in annoyance.

"You mean he attacked your friends again." Elely said

"Yeah," Chibi said "No one wants to play with me anymore, they're afraid my brother will burn them alive or something."

"He's just trying to protect you," Elely said

"I don't need protecting!" Chibi nearly shouted, Elely cringed backwards at his words. What? No, he didn't like getting looked at like that, it was just like how people looked at grougal all the time.

"I'm sorry." Chibi said taking a deep breath

"Is everything all right Chibi?" Ms. Hildi's voice came from the front desk

"I'm fine Ms. Hildi." Chibi replied

"I've never seen you this upset before," Elely said "he must've really made you mad."

"Yeah I guess." Chibi said sighing "I just want to be able to have fun, and do what I want without Grougal getting in the way all the time."

"Hmm…" Elely hummed in thoughtfulness "I think it might be like my brother and me, he just needs to give you your space, if he did that everything would be fine right?"

"Right!" Chibi said more happily this time, she understood, this was good, she was living with them for awhile so maybe she could help.

"I'll talk to Alibert later," Elely said "He's gonna teach me how to make stew."

Chibi blinked "Really, he doesn't usually want to, at least not unless it's me or Yugo."

Elely shook her head "He's just gonna teach me a basic stew."

"That sounds more like him." Chibi said

"But until he's done working today I have nothing to do." She said "so let's go play."

Chibi closed the book "I guess so."

 **Author's Note:** **So a little shorter than Spirit of the king chapters but longer than I intended. Chibi and Grougal aren't getting along, but hey every story needs some kind of conflict even if it's cheesey childish stuff so yeah…**


	2. Chapter 2: Prodidgy

**XennTheEliatrope: Yes I remembered that like 20 minutes after posting the chapter. I hope it continues to be good, Children's points of view are a little harder to write for me, I don't identify with them so much. Flopin is rougher on the edges after fighting and killing two immortals in space so he'll be easier to write I think…**

 **KrazyFanfiction1: Good interesting or bad interesting?**

 **Author's note: I actually have nothing all that important to impart… enjoy the chapter.**

 **Chapter 2: Prodigy.**

Chibi scrunched his face a little most of the time Elely was fun to play with, she didn't really seem to enjoy all the "girly" things that other girls did, she was much more interested in playing sports or fighting with the boys or anything physical, her weird power to see emotion didn't seem to hinder this at all. Chibi was uncomfortable though, they were fine to play with her, but he still felt left out, sure they sorta let him play, but it wasn't the same.

"Grougal…" Chibi growled a little under his breath, it was all his brother's fault, stupid dragon brother always messing things up for him. A constant reminder that he was different and that he couldn't play with the other kids, its not that they looked down on him for being an eliatrope or anything, they were just afraid that if they played with him, or let him get anywhere near them Grougal would attack them because he seemed to think that chibi was all his and no one else's. The only ones he tolerated were Flopin, Elely, and Ogrest on the rare occasion he came over.

"hey chibi you guardin' the goal or what?" a voice snapped him out of his reverie as he looked up and saw that one of the boys was standing not far from him. This weird version of gobbowl was interesting, easier to play with less people and no gear too. But it required someone to guard the goal area, and he was not exactly doing the best job.

"Sorry." He said with an embarrassed smile "I'll do better!" he walked back a few steps, closer to the goal.

He watched as the gobbowl ball was kicked around the field, you didn't use your hands in this version of the game. Eventually the ball came into Elely's possession and she blasted back towards the small eliatrope child. Chibi was concerned now, Elely was stronger that him by a good bit, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop the ball if _she_ kicked it. But the kick came anyway and he raised his hands and turned his head to avoid getting hit, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation of a blow that never came.

After several seconds without impact he opened his eyes, everyone was staring at him, Elely looked mildly irritated.

"What?" Chibi said "What happened? Grougal isn't here is he?"

"No…" Elely replied "It isn't Grougal."

"What did he just do?" the boy from earlier asked "I've never seen anything like that before."

"It's his eliatrope powers," Elely said "His big brother Yugo has them too, but according to Yugo, he didn't get his until he was twelve…"

"What eliatrope powers?" Chibi asked suddenly interested and afraid at the same time.

"You made the ball disappear." The boy said

"Yeah, into some blue thing." Another one of the boys continued.

"It's called a portal," Elely said with a huff.

"whatever, it's name doesn't help us get our ball back." He replied.

He had summoned a portal? Is that what they were saying? How was that even possible? Yugo hadn't gotten his portal powers until he was almost thirteen, papa had always said he thought it was probably the same for all of them.

"Calm down Chibi," Elely said "Try to summon another one, the ball should pop out."

"How?" chibi asked "I don't know how I did the first time. I didn't even feel anything."

"Just take a deep breath and concentrate," Elely said "Imagine one of your brother's portals and put your hand out."

"Okay…" Chibi said sheepishly he did as instructed and put his hand out he concentrated really hard and conjured up an image of one of big brother Yugo's portals, he flexed his arm muscles but nothing happened.

"I don't get it." Chibi said "It's not working."

"Hmm…" Elely sort of grunted "I thought it would too, maybe Alibert can help?" she said, hopeful.

"Whatever," the boy from earlier said "go see if he can, let us know when you get our ball back okay, I'm gonna go help my mom with chores for now."

Chibi felt terrible, before he was just mad at Grougal, it was Grougal's fault that his friends were less friendly, but now… now this was his fault, Grougal had nothing to do with it, his friends were mad at him for something he had done.

"I don't think they're mad." Elely said comfortingly "Just a little disappointed."

"I thought you couldn't read minds." Chibi said irritated.

"No, but you got really sad, really fast," Elely said "I guessed, besides, I can read thoughts sometimes, but it's really hard, I'll probably be better at it when I'm older."

Flopin carried the basket of bread from Jason's house, it was a good thing that Jason didn't live all that far, his bread was good, but in large amounts it was heavy, Alibert probably wouldn't have any trouble carrying the basket, but he had to make sure everyone at the inn got their food on time, without Yugo here that task was not as easily done, though he did have a few helpers from time to time, some of Yugo's childhood friends.

He hefted the basket higher as he approached the Inn and rounded the building to the back door, he held the basket carefully in one hand while reaching out to grab the doorknob with the other. The knob turned too easily, someone was turning from the other side, normally he would side step, but the large basket made it difficult.

As the door opened he caught glimpse of black and attempted the side step anyway, the last thing he needed was fro Grougaloragran to burn the bread. The dragon stood there for a moment, he cocked his head to the side as though in thought.

"Would – Would you like help…?" the back dragon asked, he said slowly, it sounded as though he was fighting with himself in order to speak those words, as though it went against his nature.

"Why?" Flopin asked warily "You don't really _help_ people…"

"Papa said it might help me with Chibi," Grougal said somewhat more quickly this time, though he still sounded reluctant.

"I don't know…" Flopin said "I think I'm okay."

"Oh," Grougal said again seeming quite torn "I'll just get going then…"

Flopin could not read emotions like his sister, though he had his own power, he could see things others could not, he could see the slightly increased beating of the dragon's heart, he wasn't certain what that told him though, he could see more, but he was not familiar with dragons or how they worked, so he wasn't sure what it all meant. The only thing that did make sense was that if he wanted to cause harm he should aim for a spot on the dragon's chest just to the right of center, not that he wished to do so, but he was aware of the weak spot all the same.

Grougal quickly moved out of the way and headed towards the forest, Flopin followed him with his eyes for a few moments, then decided it would be better to just walk inside and deliver the bread. The door had remained open so he walked in, he set the basket down on a low table and closed the door behind him, he could smell the food and see a full dining room beyond the bar.

Alibert hummed as he prepared the food, all this time he had not gotten any better at bread, Jason was always glad to hear Yugo was out of town however, because it meant that Alibert would buy his bread to stock his restaurant. Yugo had learned how to make fine bread from a baker named Xaav during his travels before and usually baked good dumplings and bread for the inn.

Chibi concentrated really hard, Yugo had made this sound so easy, like he had just thought about it again and it had happened. It wasn't supposed to be so hard was it? Maybe it was because he was younger. Elely stood there behind him with a hand on his shoulder trying to encourage him, it wasn't really working, he didn't know what muscle to flex what to visualize, what to think.

"I wish Yugo were here," he said sadly "He could tell me what I'm doing wrong."

Elely's hand retreated as she put a finger to her lips and tilted her head in thought. "Well, you had your eyes closed, that might have something to do with it." She said.

"How?" Chibi responded.

"Well maybe your powers aren't like flopin's and mine," she said "Maybe you have to see it in your head it for it to work properly."

"I've seen big brother's portals." Chibi said.

"So try imagining that." She said with an air of confidence. Placing her hands behind her back as she watched.

"Okay," Chibi said, he put his hand forward again and tried to imagine one of brother's portals opening in front of it. He grunted, he flexed his muscles, he wasn't sure what to do to make the magical circle appear. Then as though bidden it did, it appeared for a brief moment and spat out the gobbowl ball before disappearing as fast as it had appeared.

"It worked!" Elely uttered excitedly

"It-it did, I did it!" Chibi said "I did it! I did it!"

"Did what little one?" A voice said from behind, it startled the celebrating eliatrope and he fell forward in surprise, Elely turned a look of confusion on her face, she shouln;t of been surprised normally she could feel a person's emotions for awhile before they got close, but she hadn't felt this one's.

Chibi got up and looked at the interloper, he was taller that the eliatrope by a wide margin, a little taller that Yugo was, he wore a hood of some kind it was yellow with blue around the edges. And he wore simple clothing otherwise a vest over a bare chest and a pair of shorts that were yellow with splashes of blue here and there.

"Who're you?" he asked curious.

"I was wondering the same," he said "I've never seen one so young."

"What are you talking about?" Chibi responded "Everyone has to grow up."

"Everyone?" the older boy asked "Maybe we do…"

"Who are you?" yet another voice asked, this one held a darker tone, the sound of energy was heard as expert hands drew back his small bow.

The bow in yellow turned to see the small cra child with bow in hand standing before him with knocked arrow.

"Flopin!" Elely said in surprise, she hadn't felt him either.

"A psserby," he said cryptically "I'm just looking for someone."

Chibi noticed that the boy's hood was actually a hat and bore the same appendages to it as his own, the hat of an eliatrope.

"Are you from that embub place my brother talks about?" Chibi asked innocently

"No," The boy answered "I am from nowhere and nothing, I am just passing through."

"Then pass through." Flopin said darkly.

"Very well little boy." He said "I can tell you are a prodigy among your kind, I will offer no resistance."

The boy walked away more or less peacefully, but Flopin was put on edge by the whole thing it just didn't sit right with him. But he lowered his bow and stuffed in behind him, he began to walk away.

"Flopin!" Elely called "Where are you going?"

"To finish running errands for Alibert." He said.

Elely puffed out her cheeks in frustration "Fine, I guess." She said upset, she wanted him to stay, she always felt safer with him around and that boy had made her feel very vulnerable.

"What?" FLopin replied turning to face her "I promised I would."

"I know okay," Elely said "I just…"

Flopin put his hand on Elely's head "Don't worry I won't let anything happen to you." he said with a small brotherly smile.

Elely blushed "That's not what I meant!" she lied.

"Sure." Flopin said walking away.

Elely grumbled something about being perfectly capable of defending herself before turning away and grabbing Chibi by the arm.

"Let's go Chibi!" She said

"Go where?" Chibi asked "What about that older boy, who was he, he had a hat like mine!"

"You mean he has wings on his head like you?" Elely said.

Chibi's face turned bright red and he pulled his wrist from Elely's grasp "How do you know about that?" he asked embarrassed "No one's supposed to know! No one but Alibert and big brother!"

"Lucian had a big fight with a bad guy before" Elely said "Flopin and I got back to the ground before he got a new hat, we saw his wings." Chibi squirmed uncomfortably, Elely noticed this and took advantage.

"Well then lets see yours," Elely said "I've never seen yours."

"N-no!" Chibi said pulling his hat down "No way! I'm not supposed to!"

"Why not?" Elely asked

"I don't know!" Chibi Responded "But Big Brother says it's important!"

Elely laughed "The look on your face is funny!" she said.

"What look on my face?" he asked.

"I don't know" Elely said "It just looks funny."

Chibi twisted his little face trying to look more serious, he only succeeded in making Elely laugh more, doubling over in laughter, she didn't even need to read his emotions to tell what he was thinking and feeling as his face transition through several emotional states.

"Stop it!" Chibi said "It's not funny!" his cheeks were red as apis and puffing out in prideful anger.

"Oh gods!" Elely said "You just make it worse!" Elely said.

Chibi sat on his haunches and huffed. "You're unbearable." He said using another big word he had recently learned.

"What even does that mean?" Elely aked.

Grougal watched the two from a distance, he was sad, why was it Chibi was having so much fun with her, he didn't want the dragon around at all, Grougal did not understand. He just wanted to protect his brother from harm from everyone who could cause it. He wouldn't stand up to elely because his fire didn't seem to hurt her very much. And she was more than happy to clonk him on the head for his arrogance.

He was uncertain, perhaps he should talk to Alibert after all Flopin hadn't been much help nor had he been terribly interested in talking with the dragon in the first place. He hunched his shoulders and began walking back.

 **Author's note: Ugh! Long wait times, I hate them, sorry I hadn't gotten to this sooner but I had …issues… anyway those should be relatively fixed atm no promises though since the hammer of crap loves striking me down when I feel invincible. The number of times I messed up the word Chibi, if only you could see the list of fat fingered mistakes, it's a mile long…**


End file.
